AOR Music: Album, Track and Artist Charts

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Description of AOR

As the record-buying public grew in the early 1970s and rock became a major industry, the sales of full-length albums exceeded that of hit singles. Musicians began to explore the possibilities of extended song structures, sometimes expanding one musical idea over the span of an entire album. "Album-Oriented Rock" or "Album-Oriented Radio" filled the FM dial and coliseums with a lighter version of Hard Rock. Bands like Fleetwood Mac, Foreigner and the Steve Miller Band appealed not only to kids, but to the baby boomers who were raised on rock 'n' roll and were now eager for slightly less radical sounds as they donned suits, signed up for mortgages, and started raising families.

AOR Key Tracks

Play/Add All

Play/Add	Track	Artist
	1. Faithfully	Journey
	2. Take Me To The Top	Loverboy
	3. Dust In The Wind	Kansas
	4. Forever All Over Again	Night Ranger
	5. Shadows Of The Night	Pat Benatar
	6. Closer To Home / I'm Your Captain	Grand Funk Railroad
	7. Gaslighting Abbie	Steely Dan
	8. The Final Countdown	Europe
	9. China Grove	The Doobie Brothers
	10. Nature's Way	Spirit

AOR Key Albums

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Filed Under

Rock/Pop > Classic Rock > AOR

AOR Key Artists

April Wine

Nova Scotian arena rock
band that spent the '80s
perfecting the Art of the
Power Ballad. A pure,
slightly guilty pleasure. T...

Boston

Guitar tech symphoni-mania
with keyboard crescendos
and vocals that are truly
"feelin' it." Boston were an
AOR marvel. Boston's uniq...

Bryan Adams

Bryan Adams' gravelly voice
and anthemic songs made
him a staple on AOR radio
throughout most of the '80s
and early '90s. With movie...

Dire Straits

In the '70s and '80s, Dire
Straits produced slick,
softly boogie-ing pop rock
that appealed to critics and
the masses alike. Mark Kn...

Foreigner

Formed in '76, Foreigner
were kings of the "power
ballad" in the late '70s and
early '80s. Their music
dominated AOR radio. For...

John Mellencamp

Hailing from Seymour, Ind.,
John Mellencamp is an
outspoken advocate for the
American farmer -- a pop
rock populist. John Melle...

Journey

The ultimate arena-ballad
make out band, Journey
was massively succesful in
the late 1970s and early
'80s. The act started as a...

Loverboy

Early '80s hard rockin' AOR
band from Canada. You
know most of their hits by
heart. One of them is
"Workin' For the Weeken...

Night Ranger

Motorin' 1980s hard rock
band fond of dressing up
like WWII bomber pilots.
Best known for the classic
"Sister Christian." For a tim...

Pat Benatar

Pat Benatar's tough-chick
vocals and slick,
arena-sized guitar rock
made her one of the most
popular artists of the '80s....

Peter Frampton

Peter Frampton is best
known for the biggest
selling live album of all time,
"Frampton Comes Alive." He
used a talk box. Frampton...

REO Speedwagon

REO Speedwagon
dominated a good part of
the early '80s with a string
of hits typified by "I Can't
Fight This Feelin'." REO Sp...

Styx

Styx had a number of
prog-ish AOR hits and
massive-selling records in
the late 1970s and early
'80s. Think "Come Sail Aw...

Survivor

We have Survivor to thank
for what is perhaps the best
AOR rocker of the 1980s,
"Eye of the Tiger." To the
band's dismay, "Eye of the...

Tom Petty

The populist roots rocker
has been a mainstay of both
classic rock and Top 40
radio for decades. Petty is
chiefly known for confro...

AOR

Description of AOR

AOR Key Tracks

AOR Key Albums

Filed Under

AOR Key Artists

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